Margaret Thatcher defied US and French to secure Falklands victory, new papers reveal

Margaret Thatcher defied US and French to secure Falklands victory, new papers reveal

ON THE barren flats of the Falkland Islands, British troops were shedding gallons of blood in the campaign to expel Argentine forces. About 25 Britons were being killed each week, fighting to retake the Crown territory snatched by the South American invaders.

Now confidential government files from spring 1982 reveal how the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher stood four square with her troops in the diplomatic battles behind the scenes.

They detail how the Iron Lady held firm against American president Ronald Reagan when he urged her to go soft on the enemy. She is also seen at her fighting best, demanding that France, another ally, postpone the sale of missiles which were certain to be used against our troops.

The dossiers, published under the 30-year rule at the National Archives in Kew, South-west London, also give a glimpse of her heartache at the 10-week conflict.

But her determination to show as much grit as the British Task Force was evident in a heated late-night telephone call with Mr Reagan, her friend and ally. He had telephoned No 10 Downing Street on May 31, as the battle for the Falklands capital Port Stanley was starting and the war had two weeks to run.

A memo recording their conversation says: “President Reagan said the US considered it imperative that the UK should show it was prepared to talk before the Argentinians were forced to withdraw.

The president had spoken to the president of Brazil who shared his view that the best chance for peace was before complete Argentine humiliation. As the UK now had the upper hand militarily, it should strike a deal now.”

But Mrs Thatcher refused even to allow the UN to occupy the islands.

The memo continues: “The prime minister stressed that Britain had not lost precious lives in battle and sent an enormous Task Force to hand over the Queen’s islands immediately to a contact group.

“The immediate priority after Argentinian withdrawal would be to restore British law and administration, to carry out reconstruction and development. As Britain had had to go into the islands alone, with no outside help, she could not let the invader gain from his aggression.

"The prime minister asked the president to put himself in her position.

"She had lost valuable British ships and invaluable British lives.

"She was sure the president would act in the same way if Alaska had been similarly threatened.”

Twenty-four hours before the showdown, Mrs T had confronted president François Mitterrand over France’s deal to supply Exocet missiles to Peru. Some had been used to lethal effect by Argentine forces and victims included HMS Sheffield, sunk with the loss of 20 crew.

London and Paris knew that if sold to Peru, any further missiles would fi nd their way to its ally Argentina and be used against Britain.

I just say it was the worst, I think, moment of my life.

Margaret Thatcher

Mrs T cabled Mitterrand, saying: “I must ask you with all the emphasis and urgency at my command to find a means of delaying the departure of these missiles from France for at least a further month.”

She warned if Argentina was able to use France’s weapons against their allies, Anglo-French relations would be in tatters. “I greatly hope therefore that for the time being you will be able to find some way of keeping these missiles in France.”

A day later she had some unwelcome help solving the threat from attorney general Sir Michael Havers, who wanted to recruit a middle man to infiltrate a network supplying the missiles. He wrote to her: “The risk of resupply to the Argentines of further air-sea missiles justifies consideration of all options to prevent this, even the most way-out which may be thought to be more appropriate to a James Bond movie.”

However, by the time she was handed the note by an aide Sir Michael had thought better of such a scheme and backed away from it.

Her horror at the war unfolded before the Franks Committee which held an inquiry into whether it could have been avoided in autumn 1982.

She compared the invasion to the start of the First World War, saying: “I just say it was the worst, I think, moment of my life.”